A Tale of Persephone

            Saturday, August 10, 2013, after a second failed attempt at flying back to Anchorage on a military flight, the Watkins children were happy to spend more time at grandma's house.   Persephone learned to wash dishes.

          In the evening, Shari and I spent some time with the kids outside.  

          After everyone else decided it was time to go inside, Mikaden and Persephone were still enjoying playing together on the trampoline.  After a while, I decided to change into my pajamas, thinking I would bring the kiddos inside afterward.  As I took off my pants, I could hear Persephone through my open bedroom window, but wasn't sure if it was playing noises or crying. 

            Just then Mikaden appeared at my bedroom door.  I asked, "Where's Persephone?"

            He said, "She got hurt."

            Since I was now pants-less, I went to the living room doorway, peeked around and told Shari, "Mikaden says Persephone got hurt, and I can hear her crying."

            Shari went out the back door and called, "Persephone, where are you!?" as she walked toward the sound of her crying.

            Out my bedroom window, I saw Shari walk across the yard, calling.  She then picked up the pace, and when she reached the point where she could see around the corner of the annex, the scream of horror that issued forth from her throat sent a chill of terror through this mother's soul.  I ignored the fact that I had no pants on and ran outside to see if Shari needed my help.  Visions of hornets, blood, dangling body parts, and vicious dogs all ran through my head in an instant as I ran.

            Shari had just come around the corner with Persephone in her arms when I reached them and asked frantically, "What happened!?"

            When Shari had peered around the corner, she saw Persephone with her hand caught in a rock tumbler that was still chomping away, pulling her further around the wheel.  Shari dashed over and unplugged the beast, then carefully wound the wheel the opposite direction and was able to free Persephone's little finger out from between the belt and the wheel.  Shari said that her pinky looked flat when she got it out.  (Shari adds:That's about right. You could say that I didn't even notice you weren't wearing pants.  I also didn't remember the pile of junk I must have jumped over to reach her. All I remember seeing was the wheel eating her hand and the plugs.)

            Shari brought Persephone into the house, I yelled for Kim, but he had his headphones on, so we went into the office, and Shari pulled them off him.  She quickly told him what had happened, and she laid Persephone carefully on the table.  Persephone was still crying all the while which had the effect of getting Mikaden and Timpani crying as well.  Anali picked up Timpani to comfort her.

            As we attempted to assess the damage, Persephone refused to let anyone touch her hand and began calling for a band-aid.  Her hand had grease all over it, but we could see a small cut on each of her two middle fingers and her pinky was beginning to swell and had a small cut.  Three of her fingers seemed a bit misshapen.

            Kim suggested that going to the emergency room would be best, so I asked Shari if she wanted me to go with her.  Without hesitation she said, "Yes."

            I got dressed, and Kim got a Band-aid to appease the distraught little girl.  Shari told him, pointing to the pinky, "Don't put it on that one."

            Kim replied, "I know."

            Next thing she knew, he had put a Winnie the Pooh band-aid on Persephone's pinky finger.  (Aargh!)

            Well, Persephone stopped crying.

            During the three hours at the hospital, they gave her Ibuprofen, took an x-ray of her hand, discovered no broken bones (hooray), gingerly removed the band-aid using scissors and tweezers while Persephone cried and screamed (that took two people), soaked her hand in disinfecting cleansing solution, scrubbed all the grease off, put ointment and band-aids on the cuts, and placed her hand in a brace wrapped with an ace bandage so as to immobilize and protect the little finger.  

She fell asleep on the way home and slept well into the morning the next day.

            I am so grateful that she had no major or permanent damage.  I'm so grateful that I was able to immediately understand what Mikaden said, and that he was guided to come right away to get help.  I'm grateful that Shari seemed to know just what to do to free her hand from the tumbler.  And I'm grateful that Kim was here to give us guidance (even if he did put the band-aid on the wrong finger).